Silencing Medical Dissent: Doctors Oppose New Power for Regulators to Manage ‘Risks to Public Safety’

Silencing Medical Dissent: Doctors Oppose New Power for Regulators to Manage ‘Risks to Public Safety’
A nurse takes a man's information before administering the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at a drive through vaccination centre in Melbourne, Australia, on Aug. 9, 2021. Darrian Traynor/Getty Images
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Alternative union groups—formed in opposition to vaccine mandates—are resisting a new amendment that sharpens the powers of the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law, which was used during the pandemic to penalise medical practitioners for opposing government-backed lockdowns or mandates.

In a submission to the Queensland Parliament, the Australian Medical Professionals Society (AMPS) and the Nurses’ Professional Association of Australia say the new amendment includes terminology that is too broad and will silence the “voices of expertise that wish to correct health authorities.”